Super-quick post on a late Sunday afternoon...

I’ve only got time to list the books I’ve read over the past two weeks and some quick summaries, as I’ve got a hefty book to start for our book club meeting next Saturday, which I’m hoping I’ll have time to finish. 

The first book I want to tell you about is the latest historical novel by Ariel Lawhon, Code Name Hélène, which was amazing.  This novel is based on the wartime experiences of Nancy Wake, a young Australian woman who became a member of the British Special Operations Executives, and in February 1944, was parachuted into the heart of the Nazi-occupied France and the Resistance, whose task it was to train these Maquis and provide them with arms and supplies to fight against a German invasion.  Nancy began this journey when, nearly a decade earlier, she bluffed her way into a reporting job with Hearst newspapers while living in Paris.  She discovered the atrocities of the Nazi presence in Vienna and couldn’t let go of the feeling that she must do something to set things right and make these horrors end, even after she met wealthy businessman and renowned playboy Henri Fiocca and fell in love.  This novel, told in two strands (as is usually this author’s chosen storytelling method), gives us the present and the past, two storylines that don’t run parallel, but come closer and closer together until they meet as we reach the conclusion of the book.  But Lawhon doesn’t stop at the conclusion - she also provides copious historical notes and explains how this story came to be inspired and finally written.  While the timeline was sometimes a bit confusing to follow, and while it was so incredibly detailed that it was a bit overlong, it was still a fantastic read and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in stories about strong women in history.  My Friends Book Club discussed this last week and we all thought it was amazing that this was actually based on a real person’s experiences during the war. 

The book I just finished reading this morning is the latest mystery by British author Fiona Barton, Talking to Strangers.  I’ve always enjoyed Barton’s books, and this is a second in what may be a new series featuring DI Elise King (the first is Local Gone Missing, which I have upstairs on my shelf but haven’t yet read).  As in her previous series, this story is told from mainly two points of view, that of DI Elise King and also of Kiki Nunn, a reporter with the local newspaper.  When the body of Karen Simmons, a local hairdresser, is found dead in the woods, DI King is called to investigate.  But with no leads and not much to go on, she struggles to find a way forward with the case.  Fortunately local reporter Kiki Nunn is also “on the case”, and is following leads that take her into the depths, and dangers, of online dating.  Karen’s murder also stirs up memories for Annie Curtis, a woman who never got over the murder of her son Archie in the same woods sixteen years earlier.  Could these two cases be connected, and if so, how?  And are there other dangers that go along with talking to strangers besides murder?  Are we all vulnerable?  And if so, how do we stay safe?  Although this was a murder mystery and Barton successfully weaves together the two cases, past and present, what struck me about this book was that it was really about our vulnerabilities, and how (some) men prey on unsuspecting women with no remorse.  It was pretty good, but not as good as er earlier books, like The Widow and The Suspect.  still, it was a quick read, a page-turner that kept me (sort of) guessing until the final twist.

That's all for today. Stay warm and keep reading! Bye for now... Julie

Post on a chilly, wintry morning...

It’s snowy and overcast and chilly this morning, although it’s much milder than it was last week.  I’ve got a cup of delicious steeped chai to keep me warm as I write this short post about two great books. 

The first book I will tell you about is A Great Country by Canadian author Shilpi Somaya Gowda.  I’ve really enjoyed her books in the past, Secret Daughter and Golden Son, both set in India.  This one is set in an upscale, gated community in Pacific Hills, California, where the Shah family has recently moved from their lower-class neighbourhood of Irvine a few months ago.  Priya and Ashok emigrated to California twenty years earlier with not much more than enough to see them through their first few months, but they worked hard to attain the American Dream, and they want to raise their children to strive for a better life.  Their three children, Deepa, sixteen, Maya, fourteen and Ajay, twelve, are living more independent lives than either parent ever dreamed of back home, but this comes with a price.  While out flying his drone at the Wayne County airport after school one day, Ajay is brutally arrested and taken to a jail cell, where Priya is eventually called once it is discovered that, despite his height and appearance, he's still a child.  What follows is an exploration into immigration and racism, and how the Shah family deal with this possible racial-profiling-related arrest.  It was a good, solid read that explores the shades of racism and threats of deportation that face many people in the US, as well as challenges faced by people in India regarding caste hierarchy.  It was very interesting and enlightening, though sometimes a bit flat or heavy-handed, but a good, solid, worthwhile read that tackles many important themes. 

The other book I want to talk about, by another favourite Canadian author, is The Mystery of Right and Wrong by Wayne Johnston.  This audiobook, performed by several narrators, sucked me in immediately and kept me listening with increasing shock and horror until the very last word (I even listened to the lengthy Author’s Note at the end, which is very important to understand the significance of this story and the characters).  In this autobiographical fictionalized novel, Wade Jackson is a recent university graduate in St. John, Newfoundland who wants to be a writer but doesn’t know where to begin.  He meets Rachel van Hout, also a recent graduate, who can’t stop reading or writing, specifically reading Anne Frank’s diary (in multiple languages) and writing in her own diary, sometimes in what she calls “the Arelliad”, written in a language she created and which no one but she can use or understand.  Born in Cape Town, South Africa, the youngest of three sisters, Rachel grapples with her obsessions with reading and writing as she also grapples with her own family history and dynamics.  Her father, Hans van Hout, also narrates portions of this novel in the form of his own epic poem, “The Ballad of the Clan van Hout”, which serves as both a family history and an indoctrination, as the girls are made to memorize this poem even as they are sexually abused at the hands of its writer.  I don’t even know how to describe this ambitious, disturbing, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking fictionalized disclosure of the truth about the lives and histories of Johnston, who has been a long-time sufferer of hypergraphia (the compulsion to write endlessly) and hyperlexia (the compulsion to read all the time) and his wife, Rose, who suffered serial sexual abuse at the hands of her own father, along with her three sisters, in both South Africa and Newfoundland.  This was an amazing read, and I’m especially glad I listened to it, as so much of the book is written in poetry, which is best appreciated when read aloud.  It was brilliant, disturbing, and so very important, and I have a new appreciation for this author, whose books I’ve been enjoying since I was a student at Lakehead University so many decades ago and a fellow English grad student literally walked me to the library shelves and placed The Story of Bobby O’Malley in my hands, insisting I read it.  This book, like Bobby O’Malley, will stay on in my memory for years to come.  I would highly recommend it to anyone, but be warned that very disturbing themes are explored. 

That’s all for today.  Time to get out for a long walk and enjoy the milder temperatures.

Bye for now! Julie

Long overdue...

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to add to this blog, and I’m going to blame it mostly on my cat, who needs lots of attention and won’t stay off my lap for long enough to write a coherent post.  The holidays are also part of the reason for this lapse:  although I’ve had more time off, I’ve also had more things to do and have spent a significant amount of this time off with my husband, who has also been off (he’s back to work today).  Anyway, I have five books to tell you about, but since there’s so many, and I also have to give you my “year in review”, I’ll only give brief summaries for each. 

The first book is Darling Girls by Australian author Sally Hepworth.  I always enjoy her books, and consider her to be similar to Lisa Jewell and Liane Moriarty, so I was looking forward to this book, but unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations.  This novel is told in the alternating chapters of three “sisters”, Norah, Jessica and Alicia, who all spent time together in a foster home called Wild Meadows, an idyllic place that holds dark secrets.  During the demolition of Wild Meadows, bones are discovered and the girls, now grown women, are contacted to give statements, stirring up long-buried memories and forcing them to reveal the true nature of their time at the home.  This sounded like a perfect choice for me, and it was ok, but it fell short of my expectation, although the interesting twist at the end made it worth the time spent to finish it. 

Then I read a rom-com by one of my favourite Canadian authors, Kelley Armstrong, called Finding Mr. Write.  Daphne McFadden moved to the Yukon a year ago to live in the dream house she designed, with the hopes of getting her YA zombie thriller published, but this has proven to be even more difficult than she anticipated.  She decides to try a new strategy and submits the manuscript under a pseudonym, Zane Remington.  Suddenly there’s a bidding war and Daphne’s book is a bestseller, which is everything she’s always dreamed of… except there’s a hitch:  how can she go on tour and do book-signings?  Hire an actor to play handsome outdoorsy Zane, of course!  And her editor-friend has just the guy to do it, no matter that Chris Stanton isn’t really an actor but an accountant who is going through a difficult time and needs a job.  But what happens when relationship-shy Daphne falls for nice-guy Chris playing arrogant-writer Zane?  You’ll have to read the book to find out.  This was an ok read, a bit repetitive and highly improbable, but it’s Armstrong’s first foray into the rom-com genre, so I’ll cut her some slack.  If you’re in the mood for a fun read that looks at the very real, very unfair challenges new female authors face, this might be the book for you. 

Then I read an amazing book by YA author Nicola Yoon, One of Our Kind, her first novel written for adults.  I had no idea what to expect from this book, but it far exceeded any expectations I may have had.  This novel opens with Jazmyn and Kingston and their young son Kamau moving to Liberty, a wealthy, All-Black community in suburban Los Angeles.  Jazmyn is a public defender and civil rights activist, often protesting the too-frequent occurrences of police brutality against Blacks, and she thinks that this stable, seemingly Liberal environment is the perfect place to bring up her son and teach him about the racism and inequality he’s likely to face growing up, as well as how to instigate change.  Her neighbours and fellow community members, however, seem indifferent to these issues to the point of near-total ignorance, baffling and infuriating Jazmyn.  All these community members seem to care about is getting together and going to the lavish Wellness Centre for luxurious and indulgent spa treatments, something she has no time for.  When the few people she’s forged connections with in the community begin to pull away and her husband tries to gently shut her down, Jazmyn’s suspicions that all is not what it seems become frighteningly real.  This page-turner was like The Other Black Girl meets Rosemary’s Baby (without Satan!).  I would highly recommend this novel to just about anyone. 

Then I read another unputdownable book of a different sort, The Husbands by Holly Gramazio.  Returning home one night after her friend Elena’s hen party, thirty-something Lauren finds a strange man in her flat.  Freaking out, she threatens to call the police and tries to race downstairs to rouse her neighbours, but the man addresses her by name and asks if she’s had a good time.  It turns out that the man's name is Michael, and he’s her husband… except Lauren is single.  While she tries to make sense of this bizarre situation, Michael goes up in the attic for some reason, only to come down again as a completely different husband.  It appears that Lauren’s attic is a magical husband-machine!  Once she begins to understand how things work, she really gets into the groove and realizes that each new husband comes with a whole set of different experiences.  Don’t like the way he chews?  Send him up to the attic!  Too boring?  Back to the attic!  Too gangly?  Back to the attic!  And so on, and so on, and so on… until at some point, Lauren has to find a way to get off this husband-merry-go-round and find happiness right where she is… but how?  This was an ambitious debut novel that hit every mark, making me laugh and root for Lauren, while also making me think about the choices we make and whether we decide to live with the consequences or make changes that may or may not produce better results.  What a fabulous find this book was, and I feel so fortunate to have discovered it.  I would highly recommend this rollicking debut. 

And the final book I can tell you about is yet another debut novel, Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon.  Set in a small community near Monterey Bay, this novel follows three generations of Rubicon women as they try to solve the mystery surrounding the murder of one of the residents. When super-successful fifty-seven-year-old LA real estate agent Lana finds herself on her kitchen floor with no way to get up, she is forced to call 911, only to discover that her fall was caused by tumors on her brain.  Post-surgery, she has no choice but to leave her high-class, upmarket life to convalesce with her estranged daughter Beth and her fifteen-year-old granddaughter Jack in a ramshackle cottage in Elkhorne Slough, a small community dominated by kayak tours and a marina.  Jack is a part-time kayak tour guide, and one Saturday evening shortly after her grandmother’s arrival, one of her kayaking groups discovers a dead body in the Slough.  When the detectives look like they will pin the crime on Jack, Lana rouses herself out of her chemo treatment stupor to shut down that line of inquiry and discover who the real murderer is.  When one of the residents at the retirement home where Beth works dies, Lana wonders if the two deaths are connected.  And while it takes some coercion on the part of Lana and Jack, they manage to bring Beth onboard, and together, mother, daughter and granddaughter must try to find out what really happened before someone else gets hurt.  This “Nancy Drew meets Colombo” mystery was interesting and detailed and had a story-line that was complex enough to keep me guessing right up to the satisfying conclusion.  It had all the hallmarks of a good mystery, and while I didn’t find it unputdownable, it was good solid writing that had everything you could hope for in a mystery, while also focusing on the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. 

Whew!  That was a lot of book talk!  And now for the Year-End Round-Up:  I read 55 books this year and listened to 19 audiobooks.  Here are my Top Reads:

Adult Fiction:
One of our Kind by Nicola Yoon
The Drowned by John Banville
The Husbands by Holly Garmazio
The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Masseud
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki
The Leftovers by Tom Perotta
The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

(worth mentioning:  Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan, The Boy who Cried Bear by Kelley Armstrong and What We Buried by Robert Rotenberg)

Adult Non-Fiction:
Prisoners of the Castle by Ben MacIntyre
Spare by Prince Harry

Juvenile/YA fiction:
The Things She’s Seen by Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina
Noah Frye Gets Crushed by Maggie Horne
Ephemia Rimaldi:  circus performer extraordinaire by Linda DeMeulemeester
Simon Sort Of Says by Erin Bow (repeat)

Audiobooks:
Killers of the Flower Moon:  the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
Home Front by Kristin Hannah 

That's all for today. Happy New Year! May 2025 be filled with many cups of tea and lots of great books!

Bye for now... Julie